Dust To Dust
by JoannaBanana91
Summary: An alternate ending for Belle & R*mple in 6x22. WARNING: NOT SHIPPER FRIENDLY.


**A/N: I wrote this after the season six finale. Unfortunately, the show didn't go in this direction, but oh well.**

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Belle cradled the young baby Gideon in her arms.

"A fresh start. A happy ending," Rumple said gratefully as he gazed upon the baby that had been an adult less than five minutes ago.

"More like a happy beginning..." Belle said carefully. She paused before saying the next part.

"Look...Rumple, I'm glad you finally made the right decision, and I'm happy that we get to raise Gideon again, but..."

She tightened her hold on the baby.

Rumpelstiltskin just looked at her questioningly.

"But what, Belle?"

She swallowed.

One baby was not going to change anything. She held Gideon in one hand and leaned down to pick up the basket he had been lying in.

"Rumple can you...Can you take us back to the shop?"

With a wave of his hand, a thick cloud of purple smoke engulfed them, and they soon found themselves back in his shop. Belle put Gideon down into the basket, set it down, and then she motioned for Rumpelstiltskin to follow her into the back.

"Look Rumple, your mother still cast the curse on the whole town, which means you didn't get rid of her like you said you would."

"But she would've hurt you and Gideon-"

"No, I get that. I do. But I can't forget everything else that you did to me Rumple. Keeping me on Killian's ship against my will, your little affair with the evil queen when we were still married, not to mention, all those years of you lying to me. I've given you too many chances, but there is no 'us' anymore. There never will be one again."

Rumple looked at her sadly, but he knew she was right. He had brought all of this on himself.

"You're right, Belle. I ruined our marriage and our family."

Belle smiled sadly at him. She was too numb to be angry at him one more time.

"Yes, Rumple. You did."

She sighed.

"But...You are Gideon's father. So I'm sure we'll be able to work something out."

Suddenly, a huge gust of wind could be heard from the other room, which made Gideon cry.

They both rushed from the back room to find the front door open, but nothing was there. Belle went over to Gideon to check up on him, and found that he needed a diaper change.

"Hey Rumple?" She said as she picked Gideon's basket up.

"Yeah?" He said while he stared at the open door before him.

"I'm going to take Gideon into the back room so I can change him."

He continued to stare at the door.

"Okay," he said quietly without turning his head.

She was about to ask him why he was standing there, but decided against it. She brought Gideon with her into the back room and set him down on a table.

"Now...Let's see..." She said softly.

 **~*THREE MINUTES LATER*~**

Belle looked at Gideon sleeping in the basket happily, proud of one of her first tasks as a mother. She immediately left the back room so she could see what was going on with that open door.

"Rumple, what's going on out-"

She froze, horrified.

Right in the middle of the floor was a crumpled up suit, the exact one that Rumple had been wearing moments before.

And it was covered in ashes.

"Wha...? How...?"

She leaned down and touched the suit.

Suddenly, she found herself re-living memories that were not hers, or at least ones that she hadn't seen.

It was like she had traveled back in time, only she couldn't interact with Rumpelstiltskin, or do anything.

She turned around and spotted her red hair going through the back room entrance, completely oblivious to what was about to happen.

"Rumpelstiltskin," she heard a rough voice whisper near her.

A mysterious hooded figure approached the open door-way, but she couldn't see who was under the hood.

"Your power is being taken away, Rumpelstiltskin, and when that is gone, you will start to age two hundred years. You will be dead."

Rumpelstiltskin laughed.

"You think you can defeat me?" Rumpelstiltskin said through gritted teeth. "Others have tried and failed. What makes you think you can, _dearie_?" The last part he said rather jokingly.

The figure lifted their hood and smiled.

"Because...I'm Zeus. Hades could only control the dead, but I have the power to give life...and to take it away."

Zeus moved closer to Rumpelstiltskin, and blew a thick grey cloud of smoke with his mouth.

Almost instantaneously, he started to age, and it didn't take long for Belle to start seeing a skull emerge from beneath the skin. She tightly closed her eyes, and after about twenty seconds, she heard the sound of sand falling on the floor.

But she knew that it wasn't sand.

She opened her eyes carefully just in time to see his suit fall down to the floor in a heap.

A light flashed around her, and soon she found herself back where she was before; leaning over the suit that now held his ashes.

"Sorry for your loss," she heard that same voice say near her.

She looked over at Zeus who was no longer wearing his hood, but just his toga.

"You...You showed me what happened."

"Yes."

"H-How did that smoke kill him?" She asked him nervously.

" _That_...is between me and the Gods," he told her sternly.

She nodded. After what she had just witnessed, she knew better than to make a God angry.

"So...What's gonna happen to all of the darkness that he had inside him? Is it gone forever?"

Part of her was hopeful. A world without darkness?

Zeus softened his eyes and leaned down in front of her.

"No. Darkness can never be truly gone forever. Not as long as living creatures exist in all of the realms. Instead, it is going to be that quiet chip on everybody's shoulder. Unexplained deaths of loved ones, pointless murders, unfair poverty and disease...That's where the darkness is going to. It's where it should've been all along. The occasional cruelty of the universe Belle, _that_ unpredictability is where that darkness truly belongs. No human, not even an immortal one, should ever have that kind of power."

He got up and walked right past her through the open door way, until he faded away.

Belle immediately walked over to the door and shut it.

She stared sadly at Rumpelstiltskin's remains. She no longer loved him, but she still cared about him in her own way. He was, after all, the father of her son, and her ex-husband.

She leaned down near the suit once more, and touched it with a sad smile.

"Rest in peace, Rumple. I'll be sure to tell Gideon that you loved him."

After that, she got up and took her phone out of her jacket pocket.

She knew exactly who to call.

"Yeah?" The voice answered.

"Emma?"

"Yeah, hey Belle. What's up?" She heard her say happily over the other end.

She looked at Rumpelstiltskin's suit, and she knew that she could trust Emma with this.

"Um...I think you should probably come over here to Rumple's shop. You have to see this to believe it."

THE END

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 **A/N: No, I do not like Belle and R*mple as a couple. Can you tell? Lol. But yeah, I kinda wish that this had happened in the episode instead, but you know.**


End file.
